BHY News: 
Discount for 1st time
 Thai Yoga Massage

From June 16 to July 19, Beecher Hill Yoga will be offering a $10 discount for first-time Yoga massages.

This is a wonderful, Yoga-based bodywork-- deeply relaxing and therapeutic.  Practiced on a special massage table, with the receiver clothed, this Yoga Massage is a variation of Thai Yoga Bodywork. Yoga massage uses a variety of bodywork techniques, including yogic breathing, passive stretching, energy work and deep muscle release.
 

Your Practice: Mantra                                  

These mantras, like the syllable AUM (OM) for instance, affect us energetically and physically through their vibration in our bodies.  Singing or chanting mantra with others can create a moving sense of connection. A mantra's meaning can affect our thoughts and emotions.  Concentrating on a mantra, repeating it silently, can quiet a wandering mind, allowing us to stay grounded and present in our practice. 

Traditional Yogic philosophy states that we should receive our individual mantra from our own guru, (spiritual teacher). However, we can  use the syllable AUM, prayers from our own religious background, or meaningful phrases in the absence of a mantra from a guru. Try coordinating your mantra with your breath.

For instance, try this silent mantra:
   in breath:   "I breathe light in to the deepest part of me."
   out breath: "I breathe light out into the world."

To learn more about traditional yoga mantras and to listen, follow the link below.
http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/841#

Yoga Therapy: 
The Mind - Body Unity
         

The Yogic model suggests five interdependent sheaths or components of an individual : the physical body, the energy body (emotions, energy, vitality), the thought body (thoughts and feelings), the wisdom body, and the bliss body (spiritual happiness). Each of these 'bodies' is considered an 'illusion' obscuring the essential truth of our nature and our connection to the Universal. In other words, the concept of sheath is metaphorical. Unity is actual.

The image of the mind and psyche as separate from the body is part of Western thought and medicine. Recently, however, Western science has been documenting the importance of attitude, image, belief and cognition to 'physical' health.  Studies have also demonstrated the strong effects of physiological experiences-- from chemicals to exercise-- on mood, thoughts and emotions. Yoga is one of several 'mind-body' modalities now being investigated and incorporated into medical models.

You may want to explore the mind/body unity on these websites:
 
http://www.thenewmedicine.org/ (logo from new medicine website)
The PBS special, The New Medicine, has a supporting website that allows you to watch videos, get information about specific health challenges, track lifestyle changes and more.

http://www.matthewsanford.com/
Meet Matthew Sanford, a Yoga teacher who is paralyzed from the chest down. His site and work focus on the need for mind/body connection in healing.

http://www.beliefnet.com/painmanagement/
Beliefnet is a large website covering a wide variety of spiritual topics. Try starting with the Pain Management Center where you can listen to a lesson in meditation or follow 10 yoga poses for pain management.

http://mentalhealth.about.com/od/research/Mind_Body_Research_Findings.htm
This site has many links to scientific research on the relationship between emotional state and physical health.

        
photo: Doctors Without Borders

 Karma Yoga:
Giving

Yoga philosophy views all beings and objects as inter-related. The practice of Yoga calls on us to "see"  more clearly; that means to see our own actions in relation to the world we are part of. This is, in part, the basis for karma yoga, the practice of right action. In this framework, our felt sense of being separate and alienated from our social and ecological environment  results in our own personal suffering. It also is a source of disease, individual, collective and ecological.  We cannot really make the distinction between healing ourselves and healing our world.

• Doctors Without Borders   http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

• UNICEF    http://www.unicef.org

• Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger  www.vtnohunger.org

• World Food Programme  http://www.wfp.org/english 

• American Jewish World Service  http://www.ajws.org/

For information on other charitable organizations
 Charity Navigator http://charitynavigator.org/
 Charity Watch http://charitywatch.org